Our Mission
The mission of Community Resources for Children (CRC) is to provide children with the best possible start by empowering the adults who impact their care and education. Whether a child is at home with a parent, in child care or preschool, or cared for by a friend or relative, CRC provides the adults who take care of children with the knowledge, tools, and resources so that children under their care thrive.
Goals:
- To ensure that parents are respected as an integral part of the delivery of our services and that we are responsive to their needs.
- To support families and early care and education professionals to meet the developmental needs of children.
- To monitor child care supply and demand.
- To advocate for children and families.
Toward the accomplishment of these goals, Community Resources for Children will:
- Empower parents and caregivers to become their child’s first teacher.
- Provide parents with resources to make informed decisions regarding their early care and education choices.
- Work with families who need help affording child care to allow them to remain employed, in school or in training leading toward self-sufficiency.
- Encourage positive parent/provider/agency communication.
- Provide workshops, resources and training for those interested in becoming child care providers and for the continuing education of child care professionals.
- Link providers to various professional associations on the local, state, and national level.
- Educate the community regarding the needs of young children, parents, and providers.
- Offer technical assistance and support to child care providers and parents.
- Collect accurate data on the full array of child care services available and track the need for childcare.
- Collaborate with public and private agencies to meet local child care needs.
Core Values.
Include
We celebrate and embody a culture of belonging and inclusiveness. We create spaces where people are encouraged to bring their whole selves and where families, child care providers, and caregivers, as well as the children in their care, can thrive and live to their fullest potential. We offer programs and support that meet people where they are, recognizing their strengths and embracing their individual needs, identities, and lived experiences.
Collaborate
We believe that we are better together than apart and that our work is more valuable if done through a collaborative lens – internally and with the community we serve. True collaboration is built on mutual respect and a shared vision.
Adapt
We are open to new ideas and change, and we explore what is possible and what sets us apart. We embrace a culture that is willing to look at different and progressive practices and integrate those practices into our programs.
Empower
We empower each other to take risks, to do things differently, to inspire growth and development, to celebrate successes, and to better serve the needs of our clients. Our ultimate goal is for every child and every employee to achieve their full potential.
HISTORY.
The Community Child Care Council (4 C’s) of Sonoma County received expansion funding from the State Department of Education under AB 3059 to develop a directory of children’s services and establish Resource and Referral Services in Napa County.
The guide to services and programs for young children in Napa County was compiled by 4 C’s in cooperation with the Napa County Commission on the Status of Women and other local agencies. Printed on a variety of colored papers and entitled “Rainbow”, the 102-page book listed day care programs, private elementary schools, and services for children with developmental and special needs. Printed in both English and Spanish, about 600 copies were distributed to local agencies in August 1977.
Project coordinators were Nancy Kael and Judi Egbert.To assist in compiling the directory, a Napa County Advisory Committee consisting of interested individuals representing agencies, child care providers and parents was established. This group not only assisted with the development of the directory but was dedicated to the future development of an information and referral service.
Members were:
- Bernice Braby – Napa County Schools Children’s Centers
- Ed Cole – Child Protective Services
- Dee Cuney – Family Day Care Association
- Esther Domingo – Chrysalis Children’s Center
- Robert Feraru – Human Services Task Force
- Pam Forseth – Parent
- Maureen Shrader – Parent
- Jack Hanstein – Napa County Mental Health Services
- Jean Hillman – State Department of Health, Licensing
- Marian Williams – State Department of Health, Licensing
- Carole Kelly – Early Childhood Program, Napa College
- Gil Lopez – Head Start
- Paul Miller – Head Start
- Florence Merla – Merla’s Little School
- Joan Murphy – Napa County Commission on the Status of Women
- Laura Paton – Information and Referral
The information and referral service was known as Rainbow Referral.On May 24, 1978, Paul Miller and Carole Kelly, President and Secretary of the Board of Directors of Rainbow Child Care Council of Napa County, Inc. filed the agency’s Articles of Incorporation. They were endorsed and filed by the office of the Secretary of State of the State of California on June 6, 1978.
